Although both artists employ the exaggerated and cartoon-like characters and themes of many other artists of their generation, it’s difficult not to walk away from The Fable of Fairy Tale thinking that nationalism (albeit unintentionally) underlies their ironic images.
Their paintings evoke, at least for this reviewer, nostalgia for a simpler time free of the negative influences of global fashion trends and a fear of foreign powers that is now focused on the US’ military industrial complex. They have picked up on the resentment many in China continue to feel toward external influences that are intimately tied up with history and not of their own device. As such, the works of Yang and Mu provide us with an invaluable glimpse into the preoccupations of an emerging generation of artists — one that on the surface seems content to recreate and criticize the phenomena that they see around them but on a deeper level is re-evaluating what it means to be Chinese.
RSS